Secured Automated Lending Technology (SALT) has an enviable problem if its recent Medium post is to be believed. The membership-based crypto-as-collateral loan platform has declared “a demand of over $1.3b in loan requests” is forcing it to suspend “new membership registrations, loan requests, and purchases of SALT.”

SALT Comes to a Halt

Colorado-based SALT has only been around since late 2017, but during that time it claims to have issued “over $23m in blockchain-backed loans.” If that wasn’t enough, “there is still a demand of over $1.3b in loan requests that we are diligently working to address,” a recent communication from the company explained.

Using a member’s cryptocurrency holdings as collateral for cash loans, enthusiasts are able to leverage their gains in decentralized currency markets in the event they’d like to pay off debt or whatever financial spirit moves them. And they’re able to do it without giving up crypto holdings per se.

Evidently, it’s catching on. “Due to the enormous demand and loan requests we will be temporarily suspending new membership registrations, loan requests, and purchases of SALT on our platform. Existing members will still be able to deposit SALT on the platform and upgrade their membership in the interim. We plan to begin adding members and turn on all associated features as soon as we have satisfied the automation of our current loan process and have served the current pending loan requests.”

SALT’s business model is essentially larger loans floated by accredited investors; those with a net worth of more than a million dollars or with six-figure salaries. The minimum loan is 5,000 USD, and it does seem to be working well – maybe too well – to the tune of over 60,000 members.

Alternatives to SALT

“The process of scaling and automating our processes and technology,” SALT continues, “has been progressing well but we’ve recognized an opportunity to focus our team’s time and resources on this important goal and on addressing the existing demand before we continue to add new memberships and loan requests.”

While SALT figures out how to scale, other lending programs abound within the ecosystem. Coinloan is a crypto asset collateral lending program that offers significantly smaller loans and easier access. Ripio’s RPN Global Lending is more peer-to-peer in its approach. Ethlend of Switzerland works off of the Ethereum blockchain, and touts its decentralized features.

And even though SALT is “temporarily halting these features we will be able to dedicate all of our time and energy on serving those that have been integral to our success thus far, as well as positioning our platform to address the future demand for SALT’s lending platform,” which includes moving into US states such as Arkansas, Delaware, New Jersey, and North Carolina to push commercial loans.

What are your thoughts on crypto loan programs? Let us know in the comments section.

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C. Edward Kelso

C. Edward Kelso has written hundreds of articles as a journalist covering a range of topics from international finance, regulation, to cryptocurrency philosophy, interviews with luminaries, and book reviews.

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